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DOE OSTI · 1774054

Reply to: Is the debate over grana stacking formation finally solved?

Müh, Frank·van Oort, Bart·Puthiyaveetil, Sujith·Kirchhoff, Helmut
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Abstract

In plants, the photosynthetic pigment–protein complexes catalysing energy conversion are harboured in the thylakoid membrane system of chloroplasts. Recent breakthroughs in electron tomography reveal the sophisticated architecture of this unique membrane system with stacked grana as a structural hallmark. Here, a long-standing question has been whether the combination of physicochemical forces alone can explain the strict stacking of grana with an intermembrane separation of 3–4 nm. In our 2017 Nature Plants paper, we argued that the balance between attractive van der Waals (vdW) forces (F vdW ) and repulsive electrostatic (F el ) and hydrostructural (F hydro ) forces could explain grana stacking, in contrast with previous reports. Our finding was challenged in the report by Gudarzi et al. This reply addresses this critique.

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Müh, Frank, van Oort, Bart, Puthiyaveetil, Sujith, Kirchhoff, Helmut. 2021-03-11. Reply to: Is the debate over grana stacking formation finally solved?. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00881-6

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